camerapediafandomcom-20200215-history
Seneca
Seneca Camera Mfg. Co. was a camera maker based in the American photography capital Rochester, New York. The company was founded at the end of the 19th century. Its chiefs were the former superintendent at Kodak Camera Works Frank T. Day, president, William C. Whitlock, vice-president, and Lorin E. Mason. They bought the assets of the Sunart company which was not very successful. Seneca itself managed to get a larger share of the American camera market. It made a series of simpler cameras for everybody, mainly the Scout series of box cameras and rollfilm folders. And it made several big view cameras like the Seneca View, Competitor, plate box cameras like the Kao Sr., and folding bed plate cameras like the the No. 29 Pocket Seneca, the Black Beauty and the Seneca Chautauqua. Of course Seneca put some products into other popular market segments, for example the Vest Pocket Roll Film Seneca Camera. The name of the company was derived from the name of the Seneca-Iroqois Red Indians. A county in the state of New York was already named after them. Many ads and advertising brochures of the company showed Indians as eye-catchers. In 1901 the company had rooms in the fifth floor of the Leary Dye Works, a brick building at the corner of Platt and Mill Street. In spring a fire destroyed the house were 25 Seneca employees were working. Many were rescued, some by workers of Bridgeford's machine shop who managed to find large pieces of canvas on which they could catch people who were jumping out of the windows of the burning house. The damage for Seneca was 40,000 US-Dollars, uninsured. New York Times, March 2, 1901 The company also made tripods, darkroom equipment, and adapters to use film packs on plate cameras. In 1924 the company was sold to Conley which was wholly owned by Sears & Roebuck at that time. Seneca disappeared in 1926. Cameras Film plates *Seneca Press 4x5 *Chautauqua (folding bed camera) *Chautauqua Jr. *Kao Sr. (box camera) =folding bed cameras = *Seneca No. 3 *Seneca No. 4 *Seneca 9 *Pocket Seneca No. 29 *Black Beauty smaller plate and film sheet formats *Pocket Seneca No. 30, 3¼×5½" (postcard format) *Pocket Seneca No. 31, 3¼×4¼" *Box Filmette, 2¼×3¼" or 3¼×4¼" or 3¼×5½" (film packs) *Black Beauty, 3¼×5½" (postcard format) larger plate formats *Seneca 8 (folding bed camera) *City View *Columbian View *Competitor View *Magic View *Seneca View, 5×7" or 6½×8½" or 8×10" *Improved Seneca View Rollfilm The rollfilm brand sold in conjunction with Seneca's rollfilm cameras was Eastman Vulcan film: *Box Scout No. 2 *Box Scout No. 2 A *Box Scout No. 3 *Box Scout No. 3 A *Folding Scout No. 2 A *Folding Scout No. 3 *Folding Scout No. 3 A *No. 1, No. 1A, No. 3 and No. 3A Roll Film Seneca *Vest Pocket Roll Film Seneca *No. 1 Seneca Junior Links *Seneca history on Historic Camera http://historiccamera.com *Seneca view cameras at Field Cameras of the United States *Competitor View at photoethnography.com *Competitor View and Pocket Seneca No. 30 at Click on David *Seneca 8 on Early Photography * Seneca patents *Seneca Kao Sr. box camera at BoxCamera.com *Manual of the Vest Pocket Roll Film Seneca Camera at M. Butkus Jr.'s *Fatal Fire in Rochester in NYT archive *Seneca Camera Listings at Historic Camera Category:Camera makers Category:Tripod makers *